The Story of the Spirit of the Wind Handmade Guitar

July 12, 201810:31 am

The Spirit of the Wind handmade Guitar was designed just like the Thunder Child with our “One Guitar” and “less is more” philosophy.Like the Thunder Child, it was designed for those who are looking for the beautiful tone of a traditional p-90 pickup with a higher output from the classic lipsticks of the Thunder Child Guitar, plenty of bottom end while maintaining our unique “bell-like” signature tone of a great electric guitar.This guitar was made to become your lifelong companion and to find a solution to endless guitar “hoarding” that turns so many of us to guitar junkies while trying to find that “One Guitar.”

A triumph of tone and craftsmanship. Super lightweight aged Mediterranean pine You can also see the Japanese influence of the Wabi Sabi philosophy.

The “one guitar” approach came to life after I became another “victim” of the guitar hoarding which you are probably familiar with. It’s when you find yourself buying one guitar after the other trying to find the “one guitar” that will leave you speechless.At one point I’ve found myself surrounded by 40 vintage guitars. Some of them were mediocre, some good and only a few exceptions; but even among the good ones, there were only certain specs I liked, certain pickup configurations, etc…

The moment of epiphany came one day when I took a guitar amp to this amp guy in order to get it fixed. When I arrived, he took me to his workshop,opened the door and I’ve found myself at a vintage guitar and amp heaven.As I waited, he handed me an original 53′ Tele. I plugged it into an original Tweed Deluxe and expected to hear a choir of angels, but instead it sounded like another Tele. Nice, but nothing special.

When I’ve arrived at my workshop, I’ve made a list.I wrote down all the possible reasons that led me and other people to purchase an instrument. About 90% were a combination of nostalgia, myths, and marketing tricks.We buy a certain guitar because our guitar heroes used one because we are drawn to a certain brand that manufactured our dream guitar when we were young and couldn’t afford one, or because we believe in the existence of that “vintage tone” and try to recreate a specific sound.

One of the reasons that that guitar manufacturers don't use pine despite it's super lighweight and great tone , is the difficulties in the routing process. This is one of the advantages of a small boutique workshop.

Over the years I’ve found out that there are a few assumptions that are partially or completely wrong.The vintage guitar “myth”- the belief that an old instrument sounds better; while in reality, it was the way classic tracks were produced and these instruments were recorded.Another thing that I’ve noticed was that nowadays many of us use a huge array of guitar effects and pedals so that the original sound of the guitar is manipulated and sound many times artificial. That’s when I’ve decided to create a guitar that will sound superior with just one small amp. No enhancements, EQ, expensive mics, preamps, etc. A guitar that will shine with standard equipment. ( that is, by the way, the reason that in most of our demos we use a small Fender Champ…) Then there is the debate about tonewoods ( huge difference in an acoustic instrument-small in a solid body guitar)

So, when I came to design the guitar, I took all that away and decided to focus on the real thing that made some of these instruments great and to create a formula. That is why every tiny nuance in this design was well thought out.The most important thing for me was the tone. The way it sounds.Unlike solid body guitars, I was looking for an added acoustic tone. Something that will reflect the total construction and materials of the instrument.

Though the sound in an electric guitar is produced by an interference in the pickup’s magnetic field some of the acoustic qualities of the instrument will influence the way the string vibrates. That is why all of our guitars are always hollow body or semi-hollow body instruments.

We chose super lightweight aged Mediterranean pine with a thin top for that purpose. The top itself is similar to an acoustic guitar and even has braces.

Instead of a thick shiny coat, with an inevitable “flamed maple”….we removed all the unnecessary wood filler and lacquer and created our own “wind erosion” finish, as we expose the wood grain and then heavily oxidizing the wood itself and finish it with a thin layer of natural shellac/french polish. That way we keep the natural look and feel of the wood and keep it as light and responsive as possible.

One of the reasons that that guitar manufacturers don't use pine despite it's super lighweight and great tone , is the difficulties in the routing process. This is one of the advantages of a small boutique workshop.

This technique along with our method of oxidizing the handmade brass parts was influenced by the Japanese Wabi Sabi technique.The term itself is difficult to translate, but in general, it relates to the beauty that exists in nature. The term Wabi can be translated as “quiet taste” while “Sabi” refers to an antique look or an elegant simplicity.When you look at an imperfect thing, it gives a feeling that something is missing. This lack, in turn, leads me to imagine the item as complete, or made whole. To take a flower as an example -we see the full bloomas lovely, and yet we know that soon it will wilt and that this is also part of its beauty.At the height of its blossom, a flower is beautiful, but I know that as part of the natural process, the flower will fade.

This awareness, this sympathy with the many forms of beauty is Wabi Sabi.

We apply the same approach to our handmade brass hardware. In metalworking, and particularly in the application of patinas, Wabi-Sabi seeks a partnership between the maker and the natural behavior of oxides to make an imperfect surface on a perfectly finished work. We do not try to prevent oxidation, but instead, we work in concert with it. (Japanese Patinas/ Eitoku Sugimori).The combination of the hollow-body aged pine and the Port Orford cedar neck with the thin coat finish created one of the lightest electric guitars in the world, which adds to its superior playability.

The pickups that were chosen for this instrument are bare knuckle’s “Half Note” p-90 pickups, which are handmade for us in the UK, and were designed to COMPLEMENT THE NATURAL TONE OF THE GUITAR.The Half Note 90s are vintage output P90 single coils voiced primarily for players who want a fat, single coil tone with a wide dynamic range that follows their playing technique. The mid-range is broad and solid, each note carrying plenty of weight with exceptional harmonic detail and clarity. Low notes maintain a piano-like chime while high notes are fat and ring out, almost with an acoustic quality. Thess pickups were chosen for our Spirit of the Wind custom guitar because we found them to be the only ones who are capable of capturing the beautiful bell-like almost acoustic tone of the guitar.

We offer the Spirit of the Wind Custom guitar with our unique customization options such as hand engraved pickup covers.

The guitar itself enable one to obtain a huge tone pallet from clean “angelic” chimes to classic overdriven luscious notes. It is definitely not another 50’s replica and we see these instruments as sonic pieces of art.